


Love forever or never again at all

by gummibeere, SachikoKuroichi



Series: Curses and Blessings [2]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Lady/Trish mentioned, Love Curse, M/M, idiots don't talk about their feelings, translated work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2019-11-29 13:29:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18223769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gummibeere/pseuds/gummibeere, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SachikoKuroichi/pseuds/SachikoKuroichi
Summary: When Dante and Nero go on a mission together, nobody thinks that everything goes as they plan to, right? So they stumble across some nasty curse, with only a month to find a solution for. Finding your one true love in that short amount of time is gonna be just a piece of cake, isn't it? At least for Nero, as he already has his beloved girl Kyrie, right? But maybe nothing is as easy as it seems to be...





	1. Call to Adventure

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Love forever or never again at all](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17540312) by [SachikoKuroichi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SachikoKuroichi/pseuds/SachikoKuroichi). 



> Hello and welcome to hell!! To my personal Danero-fanfiction-hell xD  
> This work is my attempt of joining the hype of this ship. I already posted it in German here, as English isn't my native tounge (and I'm too lazy to write in English most of the time), but my beloved girlfriend gummibeere did an amazing work with translating it (she's still on it tho, so I'm able to focus on the sequel), so more people would be able to read it. Hopefully it's worth the effort and I really hope you like it!
> 
> In this first chapter she decided to translate a german saying, word by word, but don't worry, I gonna try to explain it the best I can. But we'll burn that bridge when we get there. xD  
> You can find the explanation for it within the End Notes, just look out for the [*].  
> It's very likely for me to keep it like that in the other chapters, if the need arises.
> 
> So... there's nothing more to say... just one more thing:  
> Enjoy! (And thanks for reading <3)

Today promised to be rather quiet.

At least if Dante had any say in the matter, although usually nobody cared much for his opinion. As of right now he sat at his desk and was about to drift into a pleasant slumber.

He couldn’t care less for the fact that the doors to his shop got swung wide open, as he obviously knew only two creatures, both female, that had a habit of doing that on the regular. For him it didn’t matter which one of them just set foot in his shop, after all, it meant the same either way: Trouble, a lot of unnecessary work and, on top of that, usually an increase in his debt. Dante sighed.

“Wake up, I’ve got a mission for you!” Lady’s “lovely” voice sounded, and only made the addressed devil hunter roll his eyes. That kind of mission he knew too well. They weren’t worth the effort, also very taxing and frequently ended up being quite life-threatening. In short: Dirty work, that Lady simply didn’t want to do.

“Get lost. I don’t accept any work from you,” grumbled Dante and turned around. His new chair was capable of that now. The old one had finally given out under him after a demon attack on the shop.  
Technically, it had been Trish and Lady’s fault that the demon horde had pillaged through here, practically, however, all the costs for reparations had been added to his mountain of debt.

“Oh? Well, that’s just wonderful. So, I take it you have all the money you owe me?” Lady gave back, highly amused. She knew exactly that Dante wasn’t a step closer to pay off his debt and as long as that was the case, she’d always have a slave for the jobs she had no interest in taking. She obviously took care that her favourite demon didn’t get his hands on any money so fast. He was way too handy to just let go.

Dante himself was barely able to contain his anger. This damn infuriating woman! He growled, however still held back, as to not outright scream at her. After all, he knew it wouldn’t get him very far anyway. She was never one to be intimidated easily.

“No reason for you to get all pissy. Why don’t you listen what’s it about first?” said Lady with a slight smile and began to talk.

The mission led into the surrounding area of Fortuna and simply consistent of salvaging an artefact out of an old and most-likely dilapidated ruin.

“See? Absolutely no problem for someone with your skills.” She finished her story. The still annoyed devil hunter just wanted to counter something, before she added one last thing: “You could ask Nero to come along.”

She had him with that, Lady knew. Even if Dante would never admit to it, not even under torture, Lady and Trish knew exactly that he had developed a soft spot for the boy. However that had happened, a riddle for both, after all, Dante had never shown genuine interest in anything, apart from his dead brother, obviously.

Dante sighed again and ripped Lady from her thoughts.  
“You won’t shut up anyway, right?”

She smiled. It had worked tremendously yet again.  
“How well you know me, Dante.”

Hours later Dante was already on his way to Fortuna, his faithful weapons Rebellion, Ebony and Ivory, as well as Agni and Rudra and Lucifer at hand. Lady had made the mission sound easy, but he wouldn’t let himself be deceived by that again. He may have had blue eyes but he’d lost the naivety that figuratively came with that a long time ago when it came to Lady. [*]

Even if he wanted to deny it, a certain kind of anticipation started to settle into his bones. He had decided to really ask Nero to accompany him.

 

Nero, on the other hand, had been bored out of his mind in Fortuna for weeks. The inhabitants of the city had apparently decided that the valiant rescue of it from total annihilation wasn’t proof enough that he wouldn’t lose it in any given moment and savagely murder every human being in a 10-mile radius. That had led to him being excommunicated from the Order of the Sword, which had been revived in the process of rebuilding the city, and that in turn meant there was not much for him to do. So he spent most of his time at home, in the flat he had once shared with Kyrie.

The attentive reader might question why that sentence is formulated in past tense. Fact was that Kyrie had ultimately bowed to the peer pressure and distanced herself from Nero entirely. She had packed all her things and left. The white-haired boy hadn’t made the effort to search for her, way too wounded by her behaviour. Naturally, he understood that she lived for the church and would never be able to cope with being excommunicated from it. And yet, she had left him behind without any explanation whatsoever. The human, the part-demon, whatever, who repeatedly put his life on the line to save hers. However, he had reached the point where he wasn’t thinking about it day and night. But slowly he was going crazy with boredom. He sighed.

Dante’s arrival in Fortuna more or less let chaos break loose in the streets of the city. Apparently, he still wasn’t their favourite guest.

The first members of the Order arrived at the scene, however, he wasn’t able to find a certain boy among them. Dante was highly puzzled. Why in the seven hells wouldn’t they send Nero, if they wanted him out of the city so badly? That made absolutely no sense to him but thinking for too long about these kinds of things simply wasn’t his style. That only left outright asking.

“Hey, where did ya leave your best man? Am I not worth his time?”

As he got no answer to that, a few other attempts followed: “The guy who saved the city? The boyfriend of your holy songstress or whatever?”

Still no answer to be heard. That certainly didn’t sit well with Dante. Nero would never let him wait so long.

“Where. Is. Nero?”

The aforementioned devil hunter had already noticed the commotion in the streets and was well on his way to gather up his weapons. He was no longer a knight of the Order but simply staying home while the city sank into chaos wasn’t an option for him. He had been raised like that and had sworn an oath to protect the inhabitants with his life, even if they would like to chase him out of the city, preferably yesterday.

However, he’d have never guessed what he found in the middle of the commotion.

“Dante? What are you doing here?”

The familiar voice let the worry for his well-being burst into a thousand little pieces. Obviously he was fine. He was a tough guy, nobody would get the better of him so easily. How he worried about such irrational things.

He grinned at Nero and gave a short wave.

“Hey, Kiddo. Long time no see! I was just passing through and thought I could visit you,” he said in his usual casual tone of voice and let his eyes wander, “Didn’t count on such a big welcoming committee, though.”

Nero couldn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes. He turned to his ex-colleagues: “It’s fine, I’ll take it from here.”

The captain of the troop was visibly less than thrilled about that and drew his weapon to point it at Nero.

“You should know your place, demon. You’re in no position to give any orders.”

Dante was speechless. What in the world happened here? Nero was no longer part of the Order? What did the declaration of ‘demon’ mean? But one thing was clear: He was definitely not thrilled that these imbecilic soldiers thought they had any right to aim their weapons at him. After all the things he did for them. Put his life on the line, endured pain, wounds and traumas and he’d dealt with all of it. He even had taken Dante on, more than once, to protect these ungrateful maggots.

“Lower your weapons or this demon here will show you how dangerous he can be.” He growled in their direction. He was willing to offer them a little dance, if they really wanted to.

Nero was immediately alarmed as he heard Dante’s growl. He stepped away from the weapon to stand at his side and laid a soothing hand on his shoulder.

“Leave them. Let’s go.”

With that he grabbed his arm with the Devil Bringer and dragged him out of the city.

“So, now talk. Why are you really here?” Nero inquired. His fellow devil hunter sighed and explained everything about the mission and his idea to ask him to tag along. The younger demon slayer was ablaze with enthusiasm for it.

“Hell yeah! Of course! You don’t need to ask for that! Finally, some action!”

His enthusiasm was immediately dulled by Dante’s following question: “What exactly is going on in Fortuna? Why the fuck do they treat you like that? How long has this been going on?”

Awkward silence followed because he couldn’t’ bring himself to answer. Unfortunately for him, the older one was having absolutely none of that.

“There’s always room for you at the Devil May Cry, you know that, right?”

Again, he received no answer and sighed. It couldn’t continue like that. They had a mission to finish after all.

“Don’t think we’re through with this – I just want to get the artefact before it gets dark.”

Nero still didn’t give him any answer but followed Dante without hesitation.


	2. An uncomfortable Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey party ppl and welcome to the second chapter!!
> 
> I'm actually overwhelmed how much all of you liked the first one - I can't even try to put it onto words, you guys are the best <3  
> Thank you so much for all the kudos and reviews you left <3  
> We really try to update asap, but besides work both of us also have other FFs (all DMC-related as we're way too deep in DMC-hell) as well as our RPG that demands our attention. So please be patient, we do our very best to make it worth it ^^  
> (Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? xP)
> 
> I guess there's nothing more to say right now - so have fun!  
> See ya in the next chapter! xoxo  
> ___________________________________________________  
>  _Thoughts of our beloved idiots_

Lady had given no closer description of the ruin or the way they’d have to take to get there, so they aimlessly wandered around the surrounding forest of Fortuna with absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever.  
Awkward silence still lay over them like a veil. It chewed on Dante’s nerves unlike anything else and he had no idea why.

“How long are we going to stray around here?” said Nero to break the silence, which admittedly startled the other one a little. Not that he’d ever tell anyone.

“Do you have a better idea? Then please, lead us through this dense jungle, oh, wise, wise— “  
Dante began to mock him but got cut short by a demonic fist that connected rather painfully with his side. Nero was seemingly not amused about his smug jokes.

“Killjoy.” The older one pouted and continued to complain and whine for the next 10 minutes how his side was severely injured.

_Note to self: Aim for the head next time. Nobody can take that whining._

“Dante, shut up. You’ll survive.” Nero groaned and kicked his shin, to add insult to injury. That let said half-demon stumble. In the process of elegantly trying to hold onto a bush and feather his fall with a stylish roll, he cleared the view to a crumbled ruin.

“Hey, are we looking for this?” Nero said, not impressed. It had been absolutely clear from the start that they would only manage to find that thing on accident. Wouldn’t surprise him if they had been circling that stupid building for hours. Dante, meanwhile, had already gotten back on his feet, dusted himself off and stood next to him again.

“Only one way to find out. Let’s check it out.”

Said, done. The ruin hadn’t really passed the test of time, so only very big structures were still clearly identifiable

“Do you have any idea what this was supposed to be once?” Nero posed a valid question, which Dante had unfortunately had no answer to- Lady had mentioned nothing about that. He himself hadn’t found it to be of any importance and even now he lacked any interest in it. He only wanted to find the artefact and then abscond as fast as possible, with Nero in tow.

Never would he allow him to return to Fortuna. Not after everything that he’d seen today. Dante was sure it was only a fraction what Nero had to bear from day to day. What the hell had happened to that girlfriend of his? Shouldn’t at least she jump to his defense? Questions over questions and Nero would likely answer none of them. That fact really got to him, even if he couldn’t put a finger on why exactly that was. Should he really get so hung up about it in the first place? After all, it was just Nero. A boy he met on one of his missions. Nothing special. And about that Dante was so wrong, he couldn’t be more wrong if he tried. It was not “just” Nero. That was the problem. The word “just” had no justification here. The kid really grew on him in the short amount of time they had spent together.

“Look, in there. Can you see the shimmering?”

Dante absolutely saw it, as well as all the shadows and nasty figures lurking in the ruin. Obviously, his instincts had to be right. Obviously, it couldn’t be simple, Obviously, they had to fight their way through.

“Yeah, I see it. Let’s get this party started!”

Both drew their weapons and stormed the ruin. Quickly the smaller demons were dust, which caused them to feel a false sense of security.

“Maybe we were a little too sceptic. Seems to not be that bad.”

And that was the moment the tables turned. A mighty demon rose from its deep slumber. Nothing, that the both of them hadn’t killed before, however, something was different.  
The bullets from their guns simply bounced off of it. Red Queen cut through something, Nero could feel it, but the demon took no damage whatsoever. Dante meanwhile switched through all his devil arms, but none of them left a single scratch on the beast.

“What is this thing?” the younger one cursed and evaded a fist that came right for his head, attempting to squish it into a puddle. Dante had no answer to this. Without a way to do it any harm, all that was left for the devil hunters was to side step its attacks. While doing that, they were continuously pushed out of the ruin. In the end they found themselves standing in front of the entrance again.

“Hey, you see that?”

Dante’s eyes followed Nero’s and found an inscription on the stone arch they had ignored previously.

“Congratulations, you found old poems. How about you focus on our little demon problem right there?”

Nero’s answer to that was an enraged growl, “How about you start to read the poem, given that you can even read?”  
Again evading an attack, he began to read the first sentences aloud, “If the guard you fathom to defeat, the words of banishment you need to read.”

Dante swung for the demon again, tried to shift the guard’s attention from Nero to himself. He rejoiced! Finally, some good fucking news!

“Then let’s break this spell!”

As if the demon understood what they had just decided to do, he began to be more vicious and violent in his attempts to smash them.

“We’ll never decipher this shit like this!” Nero protested but tried anyway.

The inscription was already faded and as such hard to read. To add on top of that, the demon really gave everything to stop them from reading it. Seemed like he didn’t want to die so soon.

“Dante, distract it! So at least I can decipher this.”  Nero suggested.  
Finding this idea rather excellent, the devil hunter shifted into his demonic form and tried to serve some sick scars with his claws. Which wasn’t successful in the slightest but functioned pretty well as distraction. After what felt like an eternity, his devil trigger threatened to run out, Nero finally uttered the absolving words of: “I got it! Get over here, so we can end this bullshit!”

With a relieved sigh Dante changed back to his more human form and bounced to his side.

“Here. These words. Together.”

Dante skeptically eyed the cryptic words. He didn’t recognize the language.

“Do you have any idea what we’re reading?” he demanded, but before he could get an answer. they were interrupted by the guard-demon.

“Would you rather be killed by this stupid fuck? We can figure it out afterwards, yeah?”

He had to admit that the kid might be onto something there and nodded. Together they dodged out of the way and began to read the first few words. Immediately the demon froze and the fear of the sound of the twisted language was clearly visible in its eyes. They almost felt some pity for it. But, like stated above, only almost. After the last syllable had echoed through the forest, the demon became agitated again. This time however, he was on the retreat and looked to flee and hide.

“Hey, now. Stay where you are!” Nero grinned and snatched their prey up with his devil bringer.

“Here, Dante, catch!”

And he did. With his trusty sword Rebellion.

All that was left of the demon now was a pile of dust and they finally were able to explore the ruin in peace.  
The artefact laid well-kept on top of an altar-like construct and shimmered peacefully in the darkness.

“What does Lady plan to do with it?” Nero wondered, which drew Dante’s undivided attention. The shimmering of the artefact cast a heavenly glow on to his face and the older devil hunter forgot for a second how important breathing could be for survival.

_Since when is Nero so damn pleasing to look at?_

Meanwhile, Nero didn’t miss the other ones staring.

“What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?” he posed the justified question but received no answer. Okay, maybe he had answered, but Nero was busy getting lost in the other one’s eyes.

_Were Dante’s eyes always so freaking blue? And the silver specks are new too, right?_

Both were absolutely enchanted with the sight of the other and took slow, subconscious steps towards each other. In the end, not a strand of hair would’ve fit in between them, their lips only separated by a slight movement and the tension was unbearable.

_So…beautiful…_

That sentence occupied all their thoughts at the moment.

An alarming screech above their heads startled them apart.

“Fuck, what was that?!” Nero pressed out as he realized, what they’d almost done. He had been about to kiss Dante!

“A bird, I think.” Said devil hunter replied, appearing entirely unfazed, while inside absolute panic reigned.

“Not what I meant, you senile, old fool!” Nero growled back, “What was that between us just now?!”

_So he’d felt that too, huh?_

“I have no fucking idea, kiddo. Maybe something about the inscription, that we read? Let’s look this thing over more closely.”

Nero sighed. At least Dante had some sort of intelligence shining through his attitude then and again. He could still feel the attraction between them, but with a bit of distance he managed to ignore most of it. That’s what he told himself at least. If he focused even slightly on him, he ran the risk of falling prey to his new found urges and press Dante to the next flat surface and kiss him senseless.

The stone the spell was inscribed into was holding up about as well as the rest of the ruin.

“As long as we don’t figure out what this says, we won’t get very far.” Dante sighed and was about to start his way back home. At the Devil May Cry tons of old books lay around and if push came to shove, he could always dig through the ruins of Temen-ni-gru. Vergil surely had entertained a vast library there. He had always been the type to look for power in wisdom. He could also contact Trish. His ex-partner was very knowledgeable with enchantments and such.

“Wait a second. I think, there’s more here.” Nero mumbled and tried to decipher the words at the bottom of the rock.

“It says something about ‘Love Spell’ and ‘until the next full moon’, ‘true love’, ‘death by broken heart’ – Does that mean anything to you?”

Dante couldn’t suppress the annoyed moan that welled up inside him. It didn’t surprise him in the slightest that a nonsensical curse like that hit him.  What hit him just a second later, however, did. Nero had thrown himself onto him out of the blue and growled darkly.

“Can you…not…do that?” he hissed at him and struggled to hold onto himself. Dante was utterly confused, after all he had no idea what crime he had committed now. Nero seemed to catch on quickly.

“Annoyed or not. Moaning is the last thing, I want to hear out of your mouth, if I should refrain from jumping you even in the slightest.” He growled at him, which gave Dante goosebumps. Now he knew more than thoroughly what the younger one meant. The curse had a tight grip on both of them. Every little gesture, every movement, every noise could be the last drop that would let the other snap.

“Okay, got it. Now get off of me.”

Nero looked Dante over, seemingly thoughtful.

“Kiddo, I can simply make you get off. But I suggest you leave on your own volition.” He continued firmly, however both of them knew that that threat was absolutely empty.

After that they were on their way back to Fortuna but paid close attention to keep enough distance between them.

“So, these fragmented sentences. What do you think they mean?” Nero carefully asked.

“If one pieces them together, it could mean we paid a pretty hefty price to defeat that damn guardian.” Dante started and thought back to the words Nero had read to him, “We got ourselves under a love spell, or rather love curse. Since we experience this…attraction, looks like that much is true. To break it we have until the next full moon, apparently. And to do that, we have to find, kiss or fuck our true love, no idea, would’ve needed a verb there. What happens if we fail was probably made cleared by ‘death by broken heart’.”

While Dante uttered his musings, Nero already began to grin.

“That will be taken care of quickly then! We just have to get to Fortuna and to Kyrie.” He said completely convinced and grinned at Dante happily, “I found my true love years ago.”

The older one remained silent about that. He wished wholeheartedly for Nero that Kyrie really loved him. However, he had a sneaking suspicion that he would witness a great disappointment today. And even if Kyrie was his one true love, Dante would wish for someone better for Nero. What normal human would just abandon his true love to be harassed and bullied by the whole city? Wouldn’t one do everything in one’s power to keep that person save?

So Dante feared that Kyrie’s feelings had developed into a different direction in his absence. And Nero had remained blind to it.

“Okay, different question. You’re out with that. But I have to start looking. Any idea when the next full moon is?”

Nero just shrugged.

“No idea, but I’m sure there’s a moon calendar somewhere at home. Kyrie always likes to know what phase the moon is in.”

The city slowly started to come into sight.

“Should I wait at the city limits or do you suppose they’ll let me in this time?” Dante posed a valid question, which Nero thought over for a second.

“Did that ever stop you? You get inside wherever you want to, right?” Nero just stated dryly which earned him a grin.

The chaos Dante had first caused when entering the city had apparently led to the people of Fortuna barricading themselves inside. The streets were devoid of any living creature and so they got to Nero’s flat without a hitch.

“Wait a moment. The calendar should be around here.” The younger one mumbled and vanished into his chaos. Dante used the time to look around a little. Nothing in this flat hinted that a woman lived here, apparently the status of their relationship was even worse than he had already thought.

“You lucky motherfucker.” It sounded from the next room and interrupted his thoughts, Nero appeared in his line of sight again and continued, “The last full moon was yesterday, so you got a whole month.”

Dante let out a relieved breath. Enough time to look for a solid solution to his problem. But first he had to take care of an entirely different one. One Nero wasn’t even aware of at this point: That he had to let go of the thought that Kyrie and he would be happily in love for the rest of their lives. Dante would bet his shop and everything he had that Kyrie wasn’t Nero’s true love.

“That’s at least something then, let’s get you out of this curse, yeah? True love’s kiss sounds cliché enough to break a damn love curse.” He suggested and let the younger one lead the way. They found Kyrie in church, where she was preparing the evening mass.

“Nero…and Dante…what exactly do you want here?”

_A heartfelt greeting looks different I think_

But Nero didn’t seem to notice. He beamed and hugged Kyrie fiercely.

“I need your help. As we fought a demon, we unfortunately got cursed. Only you can help me.” He explained and let go of her again. The addressed girl looked less then happy about her involvement in this.

“How am I supposed to help you?”

“Simple, to break the curse you would just have to kiss me.”

Kyrie just shrugged and complied. The kiss was short and void of any passion. No feelings were carried by this gesture.

_I hate when I win bets._

Nero, however, was still immune to the truth.  
But just one look at Dante was enough to free him from this desperate illusion.

_Why…? This attraction…I can still feel it…but…Kyrie…?_

“Well, now that we’ve put that behind us, I have a mass to prepare. Goodbye, Nero. Dante.”

And with that Kyrie left them standing there. Nero just stood there like he got slapped in the face, not knowing what to do. What to say.

Dante sighed.

“Alright, let’s look for a place to sleep for tonight. You want to go back to your flat? Or come to the Devil May Cry with me?”

Nero just shrugged. Right now, he didn’t care. He just didn’t care. The last thing that made his life worth living had just been pried from his grasp.

Dante just sighed again.

“Come with me. It’s about time you get to know my shop. I’ll take it from here.” He cooed at him in a soothing tone and laid an arm around his shoulders carefully.

“It…didn’t work.” Nero whispered, as if he still couldn’t comprehend what had just transpired.

“I know, kiddo. It’s all gonna be fine. I promise.”


	3. Homecoming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey party ppl!  
> I'm soooo sorry that it took that long for the next chapter to finally be online, but life has been sooo fucking busy right now. Work is shitty xD  
> Besides that I'm also working on a VergilxDante/DantexNero/VergilxDantexNero-FF (yeah, that's just one FF - just with three endings xP) and my cowriter gummibeere and me are also writing some Rebirth-AU-RPG whenever we find time for it. Too much DMC, so little time xD  
> But soon we got some time off and I thought about finally beta-reading the RPG - so please tell me: what are you thinking would be better to read? Just some adjustments of it (as its already written in some paragraph-style, like this FF, just with a lot of POV-changes given the fact that the parts aren't that long - we write it on WhatsApp after all xD) or should I "rewrite" the whole thing into a more "3rd person"-POV? It would for sure take some time as it has already over 700 pages in Word. XD)  
> Maybe I could do both - so everyone is able to decide for themselves?   
> Tell me what you think in the comments - if you plan to leave some 
> 
> Thanks for reading till the very end and have fun with the new chap.  
> love ya <3

The journey home was quiet. Dante drove the vehicle, Nero was busy gazing out of the window, letting out heart wrenching sighs from time to time. To say it drove the other one crazy, was an understatement and a really mellowed way to put it.

“Welcome to Capulet City. The most demon-infested town on this damn planet.” Dante joked as he maneuvered the car fairly save through the streets.   
The closeness to Nero and his pitiful sighs truly strained his nerves. More than once he’d had to get a hold of himself to keep from either hugging him tight or simply haul him into the backseat to do entirely different things to him.

As he finally got to pull up in front of his shop and exit the car, he thanked all the gods that listened that he made it unscathed. He had neither damaged the car nor his friendship with Nero.

He sighed. How he should manage to survive until they found a solution to their little problem, Dante couldn’t even begin to fathom.

“That’s your shop? Doesn’t look very inviting.”

Dante was speechless. Did Nero really just insult his shop? His thoughts must’ve been clearly visible on his face because the younger one added immediately:

“But it’s charming. Suits you.”

Dante just sighed as answer and opened the door.

“Just come in. Make yourself at home.”

_At home, huh? Can I maybe not feel like back there? Feel better, please? Because ‘home’ hasn’t been lucky for me._

But Nero decided that it would be better to keep these thoughts to himself. He obviously knew that Dante had only taken him in because they had to find a way to break this curse. Dante would surely send him away afterwards. Back to Fortuna. Where nobody wanted him, not even Kyrie. He sighed.

“Okay, enough of that!” Dante disrupted his thoughts, “I seriously can’t stand this any longer. Do you have the slightest clue what you unleash with that? If you don’t want me to cuddle you to death on my couch, you should consider stopping to sigh so fucking heart-wrenchingly.”

Nero was stunned to hear that and began to think. Would it really be so bad to let himself comforted by Dante for a bit?

_Yes, because the curse makes him do it. Not his own free will._

At that thought another sigh had almost escaped his lips, but Nero caught himself in the last second.

As silence followed, Dante began to smile a little.

“Good boy. It’s getting late, we should probably rest. Lady will be here early to collect the artefact for sure.” Dante explained and yawned, he was really tired out.

“Where can I sleep?” Nero posed a valid question, which got the other one to think.

“Knew I forgot something…” He admitted and relayed the situation, “There’s no guestroom, I have a spare one that we could use, but that requires lots of work that I’m not willing to do right now. We will take care of that tomorrow, okay?”

Nero crossed his arms over his chest.

“That doesn’t answer my question, old man.”

“We could share the bed, if the couch is too uncomfortable for you,” The so called old man started and began to approach the stairs that would lead him to his room, “At least that’s what I wanted to tell you, but looks like someone will have to deal with it. The offer sadly just ran out. Good Night.”

And with that he left Nero standing there. However, he clearly heard the annoyed groan.

_Serves you right, I’m not old._

A soothing shower later, he finally made it to his bed and buried himself under the blankets and pillows that filled his way too big bed. A liberated sigh escaped him. It was simply too wonderful to finally relax a little.

Just as he threatened to succumb to his dreams, the door to his room opened almost without a sound.

Dante didn’t have to check to know who was sneaking in so carefully. The forgotten attraction flared up again. He couldn’t wait for Nero to lay down next to him, the desire to snuggle up close to and hold him tight was nearly unbearable.

A happy sigh almost escaped him as he felt the mattress shift under the weight of another body but was able to contain it at the last second. What he couldn’t contain was the desire to cuddle Nero.

“Dante, let go!” Nero growled but he only got a sleepy mumble as answer. Pretending to be asleep should work out fine.

“Dante, I know you’re not asleep.”

Just stay determined, he’ll give up eventually.

And he really did. Not five minutes later, he sighed annoyed and cuddle into Dante’s chest. The older devil hunters sigh was more of a happy note. Fully contend.

Cuddled snug together, they finally fell asleep.

 

Upset screaming downstairs woke them up a few hours later.

“Dante, how often have I told you to clean this mess up! Wake up, you lazy…oh.”

Patty had just stormed into the room, upset about that Dante had all her effort to find the Devil May Cry clean made futile. Again. As she saw Nero, still laying in Dante’s arms but already beginning to frantically try to get out of the death grip he was trapped in, left her at loss for words.  
For one, because his beauty almost rendered her whole mind useless and secondly, because in all the years she’d known Dante never before had someone spent the night with him in bed. Immediately her whole face lit up, she turned on her heel and flung the door shut behind her with a loud bang.

 Nero sighed and freed himself.

“Who was that girl?” he mumbled, still a little sleepy. How tempting it was to just lie down again.

Dante stretched and closed his eyes again. He definitely planned to continue his unholy slumber. A hit against his shoulder let him groan slightly.

“Patty. Cleans here. Annoying. Pink frills and ribbons.” He mumbled into his pillow. Now, granted, that didn’t help Nero very much.

“Is she your daughter, or why is she running around the shop and complains a lot?” He wondered.

Dante shivered and sighed. Looked like his new plushy wanted to talk instead of sleeping. Slowly he opened his eyes and began to talk. About his job to protect Patty, about all the things she had done to the shop interior, about her past and finally about her mother.

“And despite all that, she runs around here and curses about the mess, from time to time while she cleans. At least she stopped decorating.”

From downstairs an annoyed voice sounded: “Your diet shouldn’t consist solely of pizza! Dante!”

“Oh, yeah, and she tries to get me to eat healthier. She’s of the opinion that pizza and Strawberry Sundae isn’t a healthy diet.” He added, amused.

Nero was reeling from all the information. There was so much he didn’t know about the devil hunter laying next to him. While he felt like he was an open book for him, Nero in turn knew next to nothing about him. He knew Glor- Trish, but what exactly they had going on, he had no idea. The ‘Lady’ Dante had mentioned, he’d never knowingly met. Who else was there in Dante’s life? Without hiding his curiosity, he watched him closely.

And immediately the attraction was back with full force. It hit him unprepared, as he had successfully ignored it up until now.

_How I’d love to simply cuddle up to him again and ask him to tell me about himself and his life up until now._

Nero shook his head hastily. That was just the curse talking there. Why would he take any interest in Dante? That made no sense at all. He was an arrogant, old idiot, who apparently only cared for pizza, Strawberry Sundae (whatever that might be) and pretty women. And that was that, Nero didn’t need to know more. That, and that he cut a fine figure fighting demons.

And yet he couldn’t deny that the thought of Dante being with a random woman really weighted down his mind. Speaking in general, Dante and anyone, who wasn’t Nero, soured his mood. He sighed.

“Let’s get up. We have a curse to break.” He decided for both of them and lead by good example. Dante only groaned.

“The books are all over the place. Good luck. When Lady shows up, tell her I’m not here and just give her the artefact. I’ll go catch some shut eye up here.”

What he hadn’t expect, but retrospectively speaking, he probably should have, was the fact that Nero’s Devil Bringer lifted him from the bed and dropped him unceremoniously onto the cold, hard floor of his bedroom.

“You will for fucking sure help me with this! It was your damn mission, so you give her that stupid thing on your own! And for fucks sake I’m not the only cursed individual in this room! So move your lazy ass! You got 10 minutes, if you’re not downstairs by then I will personally beat you into a pulp!” Nero growled at him, furiously, what let the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

_Does the kid even know how hot he is when he’s enraged?_

To keep himself from jumping Nero and try to convince him one way or another to roll around in bed with him a little longer, Dante lifted his hands in defeat.

“Alright, kiddo, alright. You win. No need to get all worked up about it.” He tried to sooth the younger one and then proceeded to pop some of his joints. To stretch after waking up so violently could truly be such a treat, then and again.

Dressing himself in only a simple pair of jeans and loose tank top, Dante was ready for the day. Nero on the other hand was confronted with a whole different problem. He’d left Fortuna in a hurry and had subsequently not wasted a thought about any belongings he might’ve liked to bring along. He didn’t have a change of clothes. Sighing, he descended the staircase into the living area, where he found Patty, who was examining his clothes.

“Way too stylish to belong to Dante.” The young woman mumbled.  
“Well, thank you. They do belong to me, after all. May I?” He smiled at her then and reached out. Immediately Patty snapped around, blushed heavily as she noticed Nero’s barely clad form and silently handed him his pants. After that she practically fled the scene and began mopping up the floor at the far corners of the office. Her reaction amused the young devil hunter thoroughly.

“Who would’ve thought that? Patty having a crush on none other than you.” Dante quipped as he sauntered down the stairs and stopped behind Nero. Before the addressed part demon could react however, he saw an item coming at them with high velocity out of his periphery, so he stepped aside just in time. The item turned out to be a bucket full of water, which collided gracefully with Dante’s head.

“Shut your mouth! Idiot!” Patty shrieked and stormed out the door. Nero couldn’t hold back any longer and laughed his heart out. Seeing Dante like a wet poodle, standing in the middle the room was just too ridiculous.

“Looks like you managed to piss off Patty yet again.” An equally amused voice mingled with his laughing. Immediately Nero turned to the newcomer and began assessing the woman. He came to the conclusion that it had to be Lady. At least if Dante didn’t entertain even more leisure relationships. Again, his mood began to sink at the thought alone. The woman was coming closer and smiled at him.  
“Nero, I suppose, right?” She began and extended her hand, “I’m Lady.”

Surprised about this formal introduction, such a civilized treatment had become foreign to him. So, he was almost shy in shaking her hand.

“A pretty specimen we got here. No wonder, that our dear Dante adores you so much.” She winked at him and let go of his hand. Startled he looked to Lady then to Dante.

_He talks about me?_

“Lady, stop that nonsense. Tell me what you want.”

She laughed mockingly. “Now, now. Why so hostile, all of a sudden? Was that supposed to be kept secret from the little one here?” She continued to joke, before growing more serious and looking at him. “What do you think I want? The yearning for your company surely didn’t get me here. The artefact. You have it, right?”

Dante groaned. “Nero has it.”

The younger devil hunter had already begun to search his bag and presented it to Lady.

“Wonderful. Keep the little one around. Looks like you get missions done more precisely and efficiently with him around. I’ll offset your reward with your debt, like always.”

With that she turned around and made to leave the shop, but Dante interrupted her.

“Lady, do you have any idea about your lovely girlfriends’ whereabouts?”  
This gained her attention and let the woman pause.

“Not currently, no. but care to tell me what you want from her?”

Dante sighed. “No, you’ll hear it from her anyway. Just tell Trish that she should check in with us, when you get a hold of her. Preferably before the next full moon.”

Lady raised a slender eyebrow. “Full moon, huh? So, it’s about a curse.” She continued her way out of the shop.

“I’ll let her know. Bye then, Dante. Nero.”

Dante let himself fall onto the couch; hair still wet. He sighed, let his head fall back and close his eyes.

“Does that woman drain your will to life with her simple presence as well, or is that just me?”

Nero chuckled, “No, I think that’s on you.”

He thought Dante’s behavior simply endearing. Now that only the two of them were here, it grew uncomfortably silent. Nero began shifting his weight from one foot to another, growing impatient, wanting to get out of this quiet. The older devil hunter seemed to be absolutely unbothered by that, perhaps he even fell back asleep.  Nero sighed.

“Haven’t we talked about your sighing?” Dante mumbled, opened his eyes lazily and looked at him. Nero had to keep himself from jumping at the sudden sound of his voice. It was just Dante, for fucks sake! He wasn’t something to be scared of! At least not if one wasn’t actively trying to kill him.

“Didn’t we have stuff to do today?” He retaliated. Offense was the best defense, after all, that didn’t only apply to demon hunting. Dante sighed annoyed, which caused the younger one to growl.

“Haven’t we talked about your sighing?” He used Dante’s own accusation against him. That only let him grin though.

“If you feel the need to sleep with me, be my guest. Let’s play a little.” He basically purred at him. That was seemingly enough to let Nero snap and pounce Dante in one fluid motion. He positioned himself onto the older one’s lap, pressing his wrists over his head to the wall behind him. A deep, dark growl escaped his lips, further showing Dante that the cute, innocent, inexperienced Nero wasn’t in charge right now.

Taken aback Dante’s eyes widened, he really hadn’t expected such a strong reaction from the younger one.  
_Maybe I really shouldn’t underestimate the effect the curse has and like play with that shit._

However, before he could think about something to de-escalate the situation, his thoughts flew out of the window. Nero had begun to kiss and nibble on his neck, biting tentatively. His teeth might not be as sharp as Dante’s own, and yet it was more than enough to leave marks behind. He couldn’t stop the aroused gasp spilling over his lips, partly because of the unforeseen nature of this sudden encounter. Nero’s mind, on the other hand, cleared up a little. Deeply disturbed by the things this damn curse let him do, he paused. He was also confused by the scent of demonic blood that swirled around his nose. He had bitten Dante hard enough to break the sensitive skin on his neck. Almost apologetic his instincts told him to lick the wound to sooth it, and he could watch it closing afterwards. Dante rewarded him with a shaky sigh. The younger one couldn’t deny that this reaction from him definitely lifted his spirits.

It felt unbelievably extraordinary to have the otherwise so strong and arrogant half demon so submissively under him. He didn’t give into the delusion that Dante couldn’t tip the scales every moment, he wasn’t that naïve, and yet it was a success that Nero didn’t want to surrender so easily. He leaned back, even let go of the pinned wrists and grinned at him.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He purred back at him and stood.  
“Still, I’d prefer to figure out more about this curse, break it and survive. Aside from that, we have a room to clean out, get a bed in there and- I’m hungry.” He proclaimed.

Dante could feel the sigh about all the work that lay before him today, rise from deep within, but was careful not to let it slip out. He absolutely had burned his finger right there. He wouldn’t risk that again. The kid was neither repulsed nor inexperienced in this kind of game, as it appeared. A fact that weighted heavily on Dante’s mind, more so than he would’ve thought. The thought about previous partners Nero might’ve had aside from the little singer, who really wasn’t a threat, resulted in a light case of jealousy. He shook his head. The curse apparently let him descent deeper into madness than he had noticed up until now.

“Alright, alright. You set our plan for today, I surrender.” Dante gave in. If he kid wanted something, than he shall have it.

**Author's Note:**

> [*] There are two possible translations for "blauäugig": either you wanna say that someone/something has blue eyes, or you wanna say that someone is naive. I was playing around a little bit with it here.


End file.
